Women, Balancing Careers With Motherhood

We need, as a society, to get back to celebrating mothers who sacrifice their careers to care for our most vulnerable, our children. And yes, we can have our cake and eat it, too. We have emerged from the former mindset that women are inferior to men, but we also must emerge from and reject the mindset that full-time mothers are inferior to working women or single mothers. I’m not longing for the pre-60s era of shoeless, apron-donning women. I’m longing for an era in which fully realized women recognize the nobility and beauty of a mother who makes the personal decision to forgo a career and raise her children. Let the women who choose to be professionals do so, but let the mothers shine as well.

Today becoming a mother is seen as a career-stopper. In reality it should be an opportunity for a woman to become a part-time entrepreneur with a greater earning potential than the employee her husband most likely is. With the financial security and rewards of her husband’s earned income, she can work on building a business from home. If it gets to a point where it can bring in more money than her husband is making, there's always the possibility that they can eventually join forces and work in tandem from home together full time. Can you imagine what an incredibly creative and productive society we’d have if our young women were compelled to think and advocate in this way?

Proverbs 31:10-31 provides a great description of what such a woman would be – an ideal wife and businesswoman. Who would you have ever thought that the Bible promoted entrepreneurship in women? Take a look for yourself.

The biggest tragedy is when women choose to value their careers over families and relationships. This is a misguided prioritization. The proper order of priorities for a home is faith, family, friends, then education and vocation. Notice that the job actually comes last - after making sure that family, friends and self has had their needs met. In some circumstances it may be more logical for the man to stay home, and there are examples of this in society. But such a husband will require much support from his wife to endure the ridicule he will face on a daily basis from ignorant men and even some of the women he might meet while taking care of the children. Not those women shouldn’t always support and encourage their husbands, but it’s particularly important when they are acting in a non-traditional role. Conversely, it should go without saying that men should support and encourage their wives when they are gracious enough to sacrifice their careers in support of their family. This decision should never be taken for granted, and as the man would endure ridicule, so would the woman.